The Olympic Flame of the 9th EYOF which will start one week from now in the Polish mountains of Silesia, was lit at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, in the presence of IOC President Jacques Rogge.

A numerous Polish delegation led by NOC President Piotr Nurowski and the President of the Organising Committee Taduesz Pilarz, and which included IOC Member Irena Szewińska,, the Polish Ambassador to Switzerland, Zdzislaw Rapacki,, and the NOC Secretary General Adam Krzesiński, accompanied the torch of the 9th European Youth Olympic Festival which will burn on the main square of the small town of Szczyrk, the main venue of the event.

The EOC Executive Committee members who gathered in the Olympic capital for their first meeting of the year, attended the lighting ceremony of the Slask Beskidy torch to the flame that burns all year round in the gardens of the Olympic Museum facing the Leman Lake.

EOC Vice-President Alexander Kozlowski, and Secretary General Raffaele Pagnozzi, were the « godfathers »of the ceremony, as President Patrick Hickey was held back in Dublin by a sudden snow storm.